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Psychological Science Vol. 31 No. 12 2020

Playing With Fear: A Field Study in Recreational Horror

Marc Malmdorf Andersen1,2; Uffe Schjoedt1,2; Henry Price3,4; Fernando E. Rosas4,5,6; Coltan Scrivner7,8; Mathias Clasen1,9

1 Interacting Minds Centre, Aarhus University · 2 School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University · 3 Theoretical Physics Group, Department of Physics, Imperial College London · 4 Center for Complexity Science, Imperial College London · 5 Data Science Institute, Imperial College London · 6 Center for Psychedelic Research, Department of Medicine, Imperial College London · 7 Department of Comparative Human Development, The University of Chicago · 8 Institute for Mind and Biology, The University of Chicago · 9 School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University

open access

Abstract

Haunted attractions are illustrative examples of recreational fear in which people voluntarily seek out frightening experiences in pursuit of enjoyment. We present findings from a field study at a haunted-house attraction where visitors between the ages of 12 and 57 years ( N = 110) were equipped with heart rate monitors, video-recorded at peak scare points during the attraction, and asked to report on their experience. Our results show that enjoyment has an inverted-U-shaped relationship with fear across repeated self-reported measures. Moreover, results from physiological data demonstrate that the experience of being frightened is a linear function of large-scale heart rate fluctuations, whereas there is an inverted-U-shaped relationship between participant enjoyment and small-scale heart rate fluctuations. These results suggest that enjoyment is related to forms of arousal dynamics that are “just right.” These findings shed light on how fear and enjoyment can coexist in recreational horror.

DOI
10.1177/0956797620972116
Volume
31
Issue
12
Pages
1497-1510
Language
en
Sources
crossref openalex

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